


An Interesting Discovery

by Theoku



Series: Number Two [1]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Clone Dib (Invader Zim), Dib discovers that he's a clone and he's angry, Gen, Membrane's trying his hardest to be a father but he sucks, ZADF, identity crisis, the series might contain ZaDr later on but not in this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 09:48:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28508454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theoku/pseuds/Theoku
Summary: Dib and Zim are now in Hi-Skool and they start being less asshole-y with each other. Of course, that's nice, but Dib has been chasing Zim and trying to expose him as an alien for six years now. What's his purpose now?He finds himself wandering in his father's lab - 'real science' becoming a new life choice for him after all these years - when he spots something odd in a room he's never seen before.
Series: Number Two [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2088264
Comments: 8
Kudos: 16





	An Interesting Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! :)  
> This is simultaneously my first time writing anything about Invader Zim and my first time writing a whole story in english (I'm not a native english speaker, please forgive me if you see anything incorrect). It's also my first time posting on AO3 and I'm having a bit of a hard time figuring everything out :') Sorry if anything seems weird!  
> Hope you'll enjoy my writing! :)

It was late, it was dark and it was cold. Yet Dib was awake, very awake actually, existential thoughts keeping him away from the rest he needed so much. Dark circles below his eyes, he contemplated the night sky and the stars he had been dreaming about so much for the past few years.  
He couldn’t help but love that kind of atmosphere. Everyone else was sleeping in his house – or at least it sounded like it. He was sitting here, alone with his reflection while the world was unaware of his very existence for a moment. There was no one here to mock him. No one to call him weird. No one to refer to him as their ‘poor insane son’.  
He was peaceful. Although he wasn’t really trying to sleep, he was a bit tired. The only thing was, he was thinking about a bunch of stuff that were too important to be dropped just because of his dumb sleepiness. He hadn’t even done much in the daytime anyway.  
Dib knew he needed to sleep, so he decided to go for a walk. As the streets were empty, he didn’t need to worry about anyone deciding to activate his bad luck, meaning he could totally listen to his music on his way. His way to what? He didn’t know yet – but he knew his feet would take him wherever he unconsciously wanted to be. He finally grabbed his shoes and quietly left.

To Dib’s surprise, he ended up in his father’s lab. Well, actually, it wasn’t really a surprise. He hadn’t been there in an insane amount of time (at least two weeks!) and he missed the white and the grey of the equipment. But most importantly, he like that place. It intrigued him. He wanted to know what his dad could prefer over him.  
Not that it had ever been different. Not only Dib wasn’t even sure his father actually loved him, but he knew he preferred his sister. He was always talking to Gaz as if she was his only child, as if Dib didn’t matter that much. It didn’t really hurt him – at least not anymore. What was truly angering Dib was that he only cared about him whenever he had to break his convictions and try to teach him about ‘real science’. Too bad for him, Dib’s contradictory spirit made him even less eager to listen to his endless speeches. All he ever heard from his dad was this annoying lecture on why aliens aren’t real and why Dib needs to get back into the ‘right path’ of ‘real science’. Boring, really. And very repetitive.

In reality, even if he would never say it in front of his father, and even if he wanted to be a paranormal investigator more than anything else, he loved science; his dad’s science included. And, yes, if it was an option of him at some point, he definitely would become a scientist, just like him. Maybe put his paranormal investigations as a part-time job or something – he wouldn’t drop them either. He didn’t really know. But he really, really admired that scientist who aspired to create a better everything. And maybe, just maybe, he would work with him someday.

Dib entered the laboratory, walked through the familiar corridor surrounded by screens of every sort to arrive in front of the door he wanted to see. He opened the door to the white, empty laboratory benches and quietly walked past them, sitting at the back, looking around and digging through the available equipment. Experiments were his guilty pleasure – especially since he had a bit of Irken blood in the pocket of his coat. He had kept this sample from one of his many fights with Zim... that had stopped for a while now.  
He looked at the sample, spinning it around his fingers, shaking the pink blood in the sealed test tube. What was he going to do with it, now that he didn’t need to fight Zim anymore? Try and see what he could find in the alien’s DNA? Look for his age, maybe, or if he even did age up? And then what, put it in a notebook and class it with his other supernatural researches? What was even the point? He didn’t need to do this anymore.

Or perhaps. He quickly got up and almost ran into the door. He wasn’t fighting Zim anymore? Fine! Did it mean he was abandoning his researches? Absolutely not! Passion filled up his eyes again. He needed to find that reactant, but where was it?  
Dib opened every door he found, yet he didn’t find what he was looking for. Almost ready to re-open every room to find it, he saw a door in the distance. A door he hadn’t even seen before.  
It was strange. That door was behind another door, which was itself around a corner behind a door, as if it was meant to be hidden. Maybe it was.

Dib shrugged.

The final door was supposed to be closed, only openable by a DNA sample. Dib gave a hair to the robotic door out of curiosity. It opened.

“Weird”, he thought. “Maybe this room is meant for me... Would Dad create an entire room for me in case I work with him or want to do some experiments? He should’ve told me so...”

Dib entered.

The entire room was covered in darkness. Actually, no, not the entire room; something was emitting a blue glow in the middle of it.  
Dib forgot everything about Zim’s DNA in the instant. The something was a sci-fi looking glass container filled with water – the ones that, in the films, had someone in it. And... yeah, it did. And the someone had a weird, big strand of hair on top of his big head.

“Wait”, murmured Dib. “Is my head that big?”

He shook his head. It wasn’t the time for this type of question. He needed to know whoever the fuck this... thing was.  
Dib looked around, still confused, and saw multiple notebooks here and there. One seemed older than the others; he picked it up and opened it, an odd feeling in his stomach.  
Quickly, he saw his name on the page. Something about a creation that he didn’t understand. Experiments. Conclusions. Other experiments. Tests. A mention of cloning.

Cloning.

Dib’s eyes went wider and wider as he browsed the notebook. It was indeed talking about him. In a weird, experimental way.

“What... What the _hell_ is this?”

He looked at his trembling arms, then put a hand on his face. God, he didn’t even notice he was crying. He looked at the old notebook. It surely had at least fifteen years. Oh, yeah, sorry haha, it had eighteen years. Just like him, because it was talking about him being a damn clone of his ‘father’! Probably a failed clone even, since he wasn’t as great, as scientific, as down to earth as his... progenitor!

Dib threw the notebook on the ground like he would’ve thrown a punch at Membrane. He tried to stop a scream of rage from coming out of his mouth, but it was too late and, oh well, it just needed to go.  
He ran out of the room, barely closing the multiple doors behind him, and finally arrived to the coldness of fresh air. His breath was heavy, his legs shaky, his eyes red and wide open. He wanted to scream, he wanted to cry harder; most importantly, he wanted to knock Membrane out. Was Gaz an experiment herself? And, if so, did she know it? Did she know about him too?  
Dib was heavily hesitating on whether or not he should directly ask her about it. Maybe he should try confronting Membrane about out before anything else.

He looked at his phone. 5 a.m. Great. What could he do now? Wander in the streets as he was planning to? He couldn’t go back to the lab to try stuff on Zim’s blood; the image of that thing, floating in the glowing liquid... it was just too much. He was already ready to throw up at any moment.

He was in front of Zim’s house before he could even think about it. He knew that the alien didn’t sleep, after all, so he might as well go bother him – or vent to him if he felt confident enough. Their friendship was new, fragile, breakable; he feared Zim would reject him or laugh at how pathetic the whole situation was... but he was the only person he could talk to.  
He hadn’t realized how little place his obsession for his enemy left for anyone else.

Zim opened the door. Of course, damn it, the gnomes standing in the garden had cameras! And Dib was just standing there like an idiot when his (previously) nemesis could see his every movement! And even right now, he was rambling in his own head while Zim was straight up staring at him like he was the dumbest person on the entire galaxy. And he was going on. Great.

“Are you gonna talk or what, Earth monkey?”

“I mean, yeah,” sighed Dib. “I was. Can I come in? Oh,” he said before Zim could answer anything, “I’m coming in anyway.”

He stepped in the house, sprawling on the couch after two steps. Zim didn’t take his eyes off him as he pulled his wig off his head, along with his lenses.

“Uuuughhhh.”

“If you could stop groaning like a pig in the middle of my living room, it would be nice.”

“Fuck you. I’m having an identity crisis right now, I don’t have the energy to be nice.”

“I think I had noticed.”

They stood there for a while, saying nothing, Dib feeling like shit and Zim still staring at him.

“So,” finally spoke Zim. “What happened? And what is this... idenidy craysis of yours?”

“Identity crisis,” corrected Dib. “And basically I just discovered I’m a clone from my dad, so I don’t know who I am anymore. Identity. Crisis. You understand, space boy? Or is it too much for your small brain?”

Zim looked outraged and Dib wondered if he even had a brain or if it had an other name. Didn’t his PAK have the same use as an additional brain?

“My Irken brain is far better than your inferior, filthy human brain!”

“Says the guy who tried to destroy the Earth by wrecking Mars on it.”

“And it **_was_** a good plan!”

Dib laughed a bit, then sighed again. He gathered himself on the couch, sitting up.

“I’m... I’m so confused,” he said. “And I have so many questions. I hate my dad right now, or... whatever he is to me. I feel so weird... He created me, you know? I’m an experiment! He experimented on me! Maybe that’s why I seem so weird to others. Maybe that’s why my head’s so big.”

He felt like he was almost crying again. He didn’t want to cry in front of Zim.

“Your head isn’t _that_ big,” said Zim as a weak attempt to comfort his old nemesis. “... Okay, maybe it is,” he continued, seeing Dib’s dubitative face. “Look, Zim knows nothing about your... hidden-y tea crisis-thingy, but you don’t look any different than before.”

“Yeah, but... Y’know. I’m literally my father, but the second one.”

“All Irkens are artificially created with a method that isn’t so different from your Earth cloning methods.”

“Our culture really isn’t the same, Zim. Humans aren’t supposed to be cloned like that. It’s forbidden. Especially because it can lead to a hardcore identity crises, just like mine. It’s just... horrible and wrong.”

Zim shrugged.

“Well, I don’t see what the problem is. You’re very different from your ‘dad’ anyway.”

Dib couldn’t stop a smile from appearing on his face and his expression softened.

“Thanks, I guess.”

Zim sat next to him on the couch, silent.  
They remained silent for a while before Dib finally gathered his courage and asked, “Zim? Can I stay here for the night?”

The alien looked at him, a bit surprised, then nodded.

“I guess I don’t mind. I will be down in my base anyway, so you won’t annoy me so much.”

“Thanks. Can I, uh, have something like a blanket? It’s pretty late, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep or not, but I’d like to rest, at least.”

“Fine. GIR! Go find a blanket!”

“Yeeaaaaahhh!” the SIR Unit answered. “Where are the blaaaankeeeets?”

“There should be one in my base. Go find it, I will join you later.”

“HEY MARYYYY!”

“GIR, the blanket!”

GIR said something loud that Dib didn’t catch on and disappeared in the bin.  
Zim quickly looked at him before going after him.

Dib was probably not going to sleep tonight, but at least there were people he actually liked, here.


End file.
